Just a quick note to say that my review of Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss's THE DESERT PLACES is now up at Necessary Fiction. Sparks and Kloss have created a unique hybrid text project (generously illustrated by Matt Kish) that, weeks after I read it, still lingers with me.

The Ben Marcus interview I quoted from recently appeared in The Quarterly Conversation, where he was interviewed by Malcolm Forbes. Marcus has long been one of my favorite writers, and I'm just dying to read his new story collection, LEAVING THE SEA. Anyways, check out the full Marcus/Forbes interview here.

The E.M. Forster discussion, also quoted in my review, will be familiar to many who have studied creative writing. For all its stodginess, Forster's ASPECTS OF A NOVEL is well worth reading. For those disinclined to read the whole book, here's the excerpt from it that introduced the concept of "flat" and "round" characters to writing pedagogues everywhere.

Hopefully, I'll have another post or two up here later this week, but thank you for checking out my blog!